NHL: Flyers fall short again in pursuit of defender

VOORHEES, N.J. — The Flyers fell to 0-2 Friday when it comes to swinging for the fences for a free agent defenseman in recent weeks. Those numbers may turn out to be worse than the two wins they’ve managed over their last 10 games.

Having turned their attention to the future, the Flyers are bent on doing so from the blue line on out. About a week after losing out on college defender Andrej Sustr, they chased another college free agent defenseman and came up short. This time, it was the hotly pursued Danny DeKeyser escaping their grasp.

Courted openly this week by several teams, DeKeyser, a 6-foot-3 Macomb, Mich., native and an outstanding two-way defender at Western Michigan, agreed to terms with the Detroit Red Wings.

The Flyers were so intent on wooing DeKeyser that among their contingent to meet with him at agent Don Meehan’s office near Toronto Wednesday was team chairman Ed Snider. That’s what adding DeKeyser would have meant to the Flyers.

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Instead, the Wings get richer and the Flyers ... well, they haven’t been this defensively poor in a long time. And that’s just in time for one of the best teams in the league, the Boston Bruins, to come to town for an afternoon shootfest aimed at goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.

Adding spice to that challenge is that three regular Flyers defenders, Nick Grossmann, Andrej Meszaros and Braydon Coburn, have gone down with injuries in the past week. Grossmann remains day to day with an undisclosed upper body injury, while Meszaros and Coburn are dealing with shoulder woes that may be serious enough to warrant concern.

The immediate effect of the injuries is that for the second time in just a few days, the Flyers are calling up a defenseman from the Phantoms, crossing their fingers, and inserting him into the lineup.

After adding Erik Gustafsson prior to a 4-3 shootout loss to the New York Islanders Thursday, the Flyers have found a jersey large enough to allow 6-6 shotblocker Oliver Lauridsen to make his NHL debut Saturday. A Dane who appears to be cut from the mold of his Phantoms assistant coach, Kjell Samuelsson, Lauridsen was a seventh-round Flyers draft pick in 2009. For a guy from Denmark drafted 194th out of 211 total selections that year, making it here is surprising.

But then, these are surprising times.

“He likes to hit, block shots and is a really good team player,” Gustafsson said of Lauridsen, his former Phantoms teammate. “He does everything. Plays a really strong, solid game.”

“For a big guy, he’s got really good foot speed,” said Flyers assistant coach Kevin McCarthy, who handles the defense. “That’s kind of a surprising for a big guy like that.”

Indeed, Lauridsen has some YouTube moments swinging his fists. Just not doing so with much finesse. But he knows how to use his bruising size to effect in the game, and should become one of the Flyers’ best shotblockers.

Might become one of Bryzgalov’s best friends that way, too.

Lauridsen told the Glen Falls (N.Y.) Post-Star that former Flyer Andreas Lilja was the first to break the news to him Friday about the promotion.

“Lils kind of pulled me aside and told me he was happy for me, (and) just calm down and play my game,” Lauridsen said. “There’s a reason I (was) called up there and (to) just keep doing what I’m doing.”

Meanwhile, the Flyers don’t want to keep doing what they’ve been doing on the ice, going 2-6-2 in 10 games and suffering losses in their last five straight after stating that every game was like a must-win. They are mired in 14th place in the Eastern Conference standings, and doing things like calling up a guy that just turned 24 who has never played in the NHL before instead of calling up a veteran like Lilja seem to be indicative of how the organizational white flag has been dusted off.

Isn’t that right, Peter Laviolette?

“It’s difficult to leave the game last night and you’re looking for better results,” Laviolette said of the Isles loss. “A couple of teams lose in front of you and you need the other point to come with you and it doesn’t. I think everybody is frustrated when you come to work, but again you’ve got to turn the page.”

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DeKeyser has a reputation of being NHL-ready. According to Flyers Director of Hockey Operations Chris Pryor, DeKeyser would likely have gone straight to the big club had he chosen to sign here. The Red Wings were always front-runners, though the Flyers, Nashville, Edmonton, Toronto and St. Louis all reportedly made serious pitches.

This comes just a couple of weeks after several teams, again including the Flyers, had pursued 6-8 Czech defender Sustr from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He’s now a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Flyers might not be finished with their collegiate pursuits. Still out there is University of Minnesota junior defenseman Nate Schmidt, who may or may not opt out of his senior year to join the free-agency ranks. The Gophers went down, 3-2, to Yale Friday in an NCAA West Regional. Schmidt is a 6-0, 195 pounder who has great offensive upside, is adept at moving the puck through traffic, and has a physical edge to his game.